The Dash

Calling all battle rappers: RedBull EmSee is back

May 23, 2011

Red Bull will bring back the EmSee competition this year, pitting the nation’s best battle rhymers against each other to crown a national champion. The competition was inaugurated last year, curated by Eminem with a finals battle in Saint Andrew’s Hall in Detroit, the city’s mecca for live hip-hop. In a twist from your usual freestyle battle, each emcee needed to incorporate word and image cues from the stage monitors in their raps to ensure those are really improvised freestyles and not a bunch of clever pre-writtens.

This year’s EmSee: Welcome to the A tour will consist of seven regional competitions and a final, with the first regional in Los Angeles at the Echoplex on Sunset Boulevard on June 9th. Bun B will host the proceedings, while Chali 2NA, Kurupt and Supernatural will be there as judges and will give a special performance. Tickets available now and \$10 cheap. The whole series of eight shows will be taped and broadcast nationally. We’ll have more info to come.

Check out a video of last year’s finals below for a taste of what’s to come. Part 2 is after the jump. To find out more, click over to RedBullUSA.com.